These cookies keep very well, so they’re great for shipping… in case there’s another cookie swap happening that I don’t know about, or you just need to send some to yourself to slow down the face stuffing process.

Unfortunately I’m using a friends computer (and I’m an idiot about non-macs) so I can’t show ya’ll any pictures right now, but they looked kind of like these, as I adapted them (just barely) from Heidi Swanson’s post.

I’ll do a follow up post at some point with the info from my fellow cookie swappers and pictures of my dorky packaging situation.

… I behaved like a fifth grader with a crush… there were check-boxes involved… it was awkward…

Anyways, I’ll be back in the near future to update this cookie swap deal and tell you where the heck I’ve been and maybe tell you about the success or failure of the persimmon ginger cream scones I’m about to make.

Also latkes.

Happy Holidays, Weirdos.

Buckwheat Cacao Nib Shortbread

Adapted from Alice Medrich and 101 Cookbooks

Cream:

2 sticks of softened salted butter

1/2 cup sugar

until just combined, don’t turn this into fluffsville (the longer you cream, the more air you incorporate, the less like shortbread- dense- your cookies will be)

mix in:

the scraped out guts of 1 vanilla bean (save the skin part for roasted fruit or an ice cream base… or just stuff it into your sugar and forget about it)

1 1/2 tsps bourbon (you can skip this but that would be silly. Unless you have cream to use up. Or aren’t using a vanilla bean)

7 tbsps cacao nibs

scrape down the bowl and sift in:

1 cup each all purpose and buckwheat flour

mix until combined and form into 2-3 disks or logs (disks to roll out for cookie cutters, logs to slice and bake) and chill for a couple of hours or overnight.

Slice (or roll out to) 1/4 inch thick cookie bits and bake on parchment until set and just golden on the sides- these are easy to overbake and your times will vary based on the size cookies you end up with so check them regularly (starting around the 7 minute mark).

The number of cookies you get will vary too, probably ranging between 48-60… so unless you’re sending them to people… and you should totally send them all over the place all the time… but if you’re not, I’m sure a half batch would work just fine and yield a less bananas amount of stuff… or you could freeze some of the dough and have cookies, like, whenever. It’s your life, buddy.